Almost Peaceful (French)
The French film translated and abbreviated "Almost Peaceful" is actually titled "Un monde presque paisible," or "A World Almost Peaceful." It's based on a novel called "Quoi de neuf sur la guerre?" ("What's New About the War?"). These titles suggest, as the film does, that the cessation of war does not automatically mean that peace will break out. Set in Paris in 1946, this gentle, loving drama takes place mostly in a small tailor's shop of mostly Jewish employees. Albert (Simon Abkarian), the owner, successfully hid from the Nazis with his wife, Lea (Zabou Breitman), and their two children, who are now away at summer camp with other children of the war, attempting to recapture a sense of normalcy. Albert is self-effacing and jovial, even making jokes in reference to the Holocaust that only a Jew who lived through it could make. (Indeed, any gentiles within hearing are shocked to hear humor so soon after the tragedy.) He and Lea employ another married couple, Leon (Vincent Elbaz) and Jacqueline (Lubna Azabal), parents of a toddler with a baby on the way. There is also Miss Andrée (Julie Gayet), a pretty young non-Jewish woman, and Charles (Denis Podalydes), a heartbreakingly sad man whose wife and children never returned from the concentration camps, though he constantly, futilely, remains vigilant in watching for their return.
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